Dublin
Irish patients who have been waiting for operations for more than a year will be flown to Britain for surgery, the Health Ministry announced this week. Ireland’s private hospitals can’t absorb the overflow from the public health service, so the ministry will pay travel costs for patients to be treated at private hospitals in Liverpool and Manchester. Ministry official Maureen Lynott stressed that all those who need immediate surgery will still get it in Ireland. “The people who are on long-term waiting lists do not usually have life-threatening conditions,” she said. “They have life-discomforting conditions, such as varicose veins, arthritic hips, and cataracts.”
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